Retroshift levers combine a metal brake lever with a simple indexed “thumb lever” style shifter arm, much like the ones found on down tubes from bikes a couple decades ago. Ergonomically, hitting the full range of gears with a single hand movement has now been race proven under Kona’s Erik Tonkin.

“What I most like about them is how quickly I can shift up into harder gears – I can easily go thru 4-5 gears at a time,” said Tonkin, after racing the levers to a win at the muddy Kruger Farm race in Oregon a couple weekends ago. ” I can also plow through a lot of gears on the downshift. This is a feature only offered by down-tube and bar-end shifters–modern STI levers don’t really afford two-way, multiple-gear shifting with one throw of a lever.”

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As its name implies, Retroshift is old technology with a new spin. The product is a lever for road bikes similar to an “STI” mechanical lever that allows riders to shift and brake at the same time. The big difference with Retroshift is that the shifter sits in front of the brake lever and the shifter itself is nothing more than an old bar-end or downtube shifter.

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Thank you all who have sent notes via the contact page to say that you can’t wait!  We hear you!

Retroshift units should be available before the end of the day Tuesday December 13th.

Cheers!

The Goats

Congratulations to Erik Tonkin for winning the last and muddiest of the Portland Season races at Kruger Farms today.  Truth be told Erik looked so strong we think we could have mounted toasters to his handlebars and he still would have taken it.  You’re a hard man Erik.  Cheers!

Bicycles have essentially remained unchanged since the 1880′s when the ‘Safety Bicycle’ was introduced with its double triangle design.  Gears and shifting have also remained quite constant at their core with an ongoing evolution of improvements. Now its 2011 and we are on the leading edge of another step into electronic shifting.  I say another as I remember Mavic’s ZAP system that failed in the 90′s.  The new system by Shimano’s however is not going to fail, it is really quite super!

Cyclocross is the fastest growing segment of our sport but I believe it will be a few years before electronic shifting becomes the standard choice in this arena.  For the time being riders are buying (or borrowing from their road bikes) complicated and relatively expensive integrated brake/shift systems.  These can work well but their reliability under cross conditions can be less than desirable and their use can seem a little wasteful when their lifespan is considerably shortened.

RetroShift is a totally new solution for a combined braking and shifting system.  A system so simple but so effective that you will question why we were using such expensive and complex systems in the first place.

Coming Soon!

Cheers,

The Goats